My Little Mudkip
by UnagiKeki
Summary: Team Gai makes a new friend; Multi-chapter cuteness, and most of all, MUDKIPS. Minimum faith in writer required.
1. Meeting The Muddy Thing

**Author's Note: Yes, this is a real fanfiction. Everybody loves the Kips of Mud, just like everybody loves Rock Lee. My humor bone hasn't been used in a while, so this is practice as well as sugar-pepped insanity; I love where this story is going...**

* * *

It all began on a summer's day, while Lee was wading in the mud.

Well, he wasn't there of his own accord. The lifeguard from hell was watching over him like some bird of prey, taking all of her premenstrual rage out upon the two vassals in the pit before her.

"And don't you come out until you've found the damn thing!" Tenten shrieked, glaring daggers and kunai and maces at the world.

"I hope she gets bit by a water snake." Neji huffed under his breath; today he was wallowing, but in a different way: Tenten's backpack had taken a tumble into this nasty, fetid marsh, and it was now their god-given mission to locate it. They'd been in here for an hour, though, and the workforce was beginning to contemplate rebellion.

By the time Neji had finished his curse, however, he was without an audience. Lee had slipped away quietly, and was homing on in the edge of a large, rotted runoff pipe. Mucking through the peat, the irrevocably-muddy and smelly Green Beast fought his way towards the shell of the concrete structure, and then paused at the entrance to it's dank depths.

"Please, god, tell me you found it." Neji called to him, unwilling to squish all the way over there. There were woodchips in his boxers. Wet woodchips.

Lee stood, lost in space for a moment; and then he bent into the dark, coming out with a trembling, wet creature cuddled in his grip.

"No." he answered dumbly, staring down at the mudfish Pokemon. "But I found _something_."

* * *

"It's called a mudkip."

"Lee, where on earth did you get a PokeDex?" Tenten asked fruitlessly, slurping obnoxiously on her milkshake to accentuate her contempt of the world in general. The three had settled down at the shaded grove near a dango stand (Lee and Neji having smelled too bad to be admitted into Ichiraku), complete with their new prize. The small, blue creature now lay in Neji's lap, eyes dead open and feet curled beneath it's body.

"You hold it." Neji insisted, dropping the wet, scaly thing between Tenten's crossed legs.

"Hell no!" she screamed, backing up and curling away from it as though it were going to explode. "That little $! ate my backpack! You're lucky I haven't beat it to death yet!"

Indeed, the strap of a burgundy backpack was hanging from the creature's tightly-shut lips (if mud kips have lips) like a string of errant drool. Much to Tenten's disgust, the mudkip chose now to slurp it up like a spaghetti noodle.

"It smells, too! Why do we still have this thing!?"

"He is lost." Lee answered blankly; his brain was nearly derailed from the task before him, and he knew that somebody on the team had to be level-headed if Mudkip was going to survive unscathed. Tenten was in that emotional red zone just short of being committed, and Neji, kicker of babies as he was, could not be trusted to even remotely care for a living being. That left our beloved Lee-cakes.

"I think we should leave it to it's environs," Neji commented, as he returned with a plate of _dango_ sticks; Tenten yanked the whole thing from his hand, and growled when he reached over to take one.

"But he is hurt…" Lee whined, accepting the chilled little creature.

"No." Tenten swore, jabbing a skewer at him. "I put up with too much from you. I refuse to see that poor animal dressed up in spandex and tortured. We're putting him back."

Lee just pulled his knees up against the mudkip, snuggling it against his cheek. "He needs to be loved and nursed back to health! How could I leave him, knowing how lonely he is!?"

"Newsflash: you're about to be lonely without both of your kneecaps in about four seconds."

"It's useless," Neji reminded her. "Remember the kittens?"

Tenten positively shuddered from head to toe: "No, I don't want to."

"Those poor little lovebugs were lost in the wilderness!" Lee defended from his fetal position.

"Lee, they were COUGAR kittens. The mother stalked you into town and almost turned us all into ground hamburger!"

"They were safe while they were with me, and the Mommy understood that!"

"It kept us up in a tree for three hours! Gai-sensei had to beat it _with a stick_!"

"It was an extension of the Fists of Love," Lee countered, stroking the mudkip's finned head.

General sighs escaped his two, defeated teammates. "We'll just wait for Gai-sensei. Maybe another idiot can penetrate this nether logic. Neji, go get some more dango."

"And pray, who will be paying me back for all of these comestibles?" he asked dangerously. The death-glare he received, however, forced him to retreat to the counter. "Fine, I'm going-"

"Hey, kiddos-" Gai called as he came jogging towards their huddled forms; when Lee unfolded to reveal the amphibious animal within his grasp, Gai froze in mid-step with his mouth open.

"Put that thing down, Lee-" he shouted, causing the starlings nesting in the small tree to rise up in a screeching, feces-splattering whirlwind of feathers. After safely avoiding the hail, Tenten scrunched her face up into a devious, fox smile.

"What'd I tell you? Even Gai-sensei thinks-"

"_-and let me hold that sweet little thing!!"_

"…What?"

Lee sprang to his feet with a 'yay', and pranced over to pass the mudkip. Gai was instantly spinning the thing above his head, exclaiming in squeals, and inspecting it's adorable little feet; Lee danced around, telling the thing's tragic story and doing a fair bit of squealing himself. People were beginning to stare, and Tenten hid her face in her hands, willing the tree she sat against to fall down and crush the pair.

Weeping, Gai proposed: "Lee… This is the cutest little froggy-thing I've ever seen! I am positively _overflowing_ with joy and paternal concern!"

"I thought you would understand!" the boy cried back, joyful tears streaking down his cheeks.

"How DARE you doubt such a thing! You _know_ nobody else gets you like I do, my best beloved student!"

"OH, SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

And the mudkip was smashed between the two flying bodies of Konoha's Green Beasts, who shook each other and spun until it's little black eyes began to bug out from lack of oxygen. Neji just stood, more dango in hand, exchanging a Certain Look with Tenten: that one that says_ Jesus, here we go again…_

"God, please strike me dead right here…"

"No, them-" Tenten insisted. "Strike _them_."

"Oh, Lee, it's okay," Gai soothed as they slowed, yanking the boy at arm's length; the mudkip was limp and gasping in Lee's arms by now. "Did you check your PokeDex?"

"Where the heck did you guys get-"

"Yes, sir! It is a Mudkip, water and ground type! And I heard that everyone likes them!"

"That's fantabulous!" the man exclaimed. "You're a mother now, Lee!" And with that they hugged again and skipped, the passed-out mudkip's little head lolling from between them.

"…" said the other members of the team.

"CALL OUT FOR EGG ROLLS!" Gai shouted towards the incredulous owners of the dango cart as he swung Lee in a circle. "- 'cause my boy's a mom now, ha ha!!"

And so Neji plunked down beside Tenten, and they let their heads bang against the ground, lost in general hopelessness. After some time a serving-girl came trotting over with a platter for the merry band, and cups for tea and sake; on her way back to the wok, however, she couldn't resist.

"So I heard that you guys like the Kips of Mud…?"

"SHUT UP." the Genin crabbed in stereo, shojou anger marks exploding in the air.


	2. Baths and Brawls

**AN: Again, this is a real fanfiction.**

**Thank you, my single reviewer, for all of your support... I can watch the traffic to this story, you know. -does shame gesture- How hard is it to press a button and review? Really, guys- I'll even take 'LOLs' at this point.**

**NOT EVEN MUDKIP LOVES SAKURA.**

* * *

Sakura's quit rappings upon the door were answered by one specimen of Rock Lee, soaked from head to toe; his wet hair dripped down onto the hall carpet, the pockets of his swim trunks swollen with water.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" he fairly screamed; his face turned so pink with pleasure she worried, for a moment, if he was going to explode. Peering over his shoulder, the girl cautiously asked what he was doing in his little apartment.

"We're taking a bath!" he replied cheerfully, and dragged her inside before she could protest to either the weirdness or the dousing she was getting from just being near him.

The apartment was typical of the dormitories set up en masse for Shinobi clientele, who had a significant amount docked from their pay automatically for such establishments; for Genin without guardians, the system worked just fine, encouraging them to keep up with missions and train harder for better jobs. Lee's futon was perfectly folded up in the corner, and the place was almost disconcertingly neat; the broken blinds, duct tape over the bare wires, and Stepford-wife-like sets of half-dried jumpsuits hanging on the wall were the only signs of life.

Lee dragged her past all this, and into the closet-sized washroom. Literally standing on his feet, Sakura was finally able to seat herself upon the single counter and observe the sight before her:

The diminutive washtub was overflowing, and the tiled floor had become a swamp; the overflow was being greatly added to by the frolickings of one little blue mudkip, who was paddling and alternately breaching like a whale in the expanse of warm water. As she watched, the creature drew up and cheerfully spit a stream of water at her.

"Mudkip is very happy here!" Lee informed her, seemingly unnoticing of her displeasure at being wet. "He likes the clean water."

"He's obviously well-behaved," she growled, glaring daggers at it.

"True," Lee commented, seating himself on the lid of the toilet; this opened up about four inches of space for Sakura to towel off in. Lee kept his eyes modestly towards the cracked tiles that lined both the floor and the walls. "He was a little scared of the thunder last night, but as long as he stays moist, he is nice to be around. He sleeps in the sink there, and my landlady doesn't know."

"Lovely." the pink-haired girl replied despondently. "So what was it that you called Tsunade-sama about?"

"Ah, yes- Mudkip was a little sick. He is feeling better now, but his stomach hurt earlier."

"What have you been feeding him?"

"Curry, of course."

"CURRY!?"

"Of course."

"Jesus, Lee-" Sakura sighed, plunking her face into her palms. "You can't feed a… whatever it is, you can't load it with spices and meat. That's common sense!"

"Common what?" he asked, reaching out to pat his pet on the head.

"… Never mind. So, is he really anxious? I heard his little leg was hurt."

"Just a bit." Sakura motioned for Lee to grab the animal, and he obliged, scooping the sopping squat, slimy mudkip up onto the bathroom counter; Sakura was sopping wet by now, but was beyond caring. The mudkip regarded Sakura warily, blinking it's button eyes as she examined the one leg in which Lee had noticed a pronounced limp.

At length, the kunoichi sighed. "It looks like he's broken his ankle in the past. If he's ever going to walk normally, he have to put it in a splint… A waterproof one." she added.

"OH, MUDKIP!" Lee sympathized, sitting back down on the toilet lid. "How could I have not sensed before your agony!? HOW CRUEL! HOW UNFEELING-"

"It's okay, Lee…" Sakura comforted distantly. "You're taking good care of him, besides the whole curry thing. And besides, the only reason you were able to catch him was because of this."

The mudkip took a dramatic, flying leap from Sakura's grasp; it landed back in the tub with a catastrophic splash, that splattered the entirety of the bathroom. Behind the soggy stripes of her bangs, Sakura glared death at the clapping, gleeful Green Beast of her Discontent.

"You'll need to take it to Inuzuka Hana. She'll be able to fix him up…" she extolled quietly.

"By the way, what are you doing about walking it? It's certainly not leash trained-"

At this point the mudkip clambered over the edge of the tub; slipping onto the ground in a puddle, he seated himself squarely at the feet of the sitting Lee, staring up into his face with impatience. Lee leapt up from the commode, and began directing Sakura from the room.

"No need!" the boy responded, closing the unpainted door so Mudkip could have some privacy. "He's toilet-trained!"

----

The beginning of the week brought Team Gai to their usual training field- along with Lee and his new shadow. They came jogging through the woods together, Mudkip merrily bounding at his heels.

"Good morning, my children!" Gai addressed much too loudly; Tenten wiped the spittle from her face, while Neji simply glared at them all. He still smelled like marsh mud, and was none too pleased.

"And hello, little guy!" Gai called, kneeling down to pat the mudkip; it grinned with an opened mouth, and danced in a happy circle beneath his big, tanned hand.

"Alrighty. We've got a C-ranked mission this Thursday, and it's time to buckle down! We need to be at the top of our game when we get to the Swamp Country!"

"We're leaving Konoha!?" Tenten exclaimed, eyes sparkling.

"Indeed. A master shinobi has been employed by a company and is terrorizing people with unpaid debts. We're going to shut him and his fraudulent business down."

"But first we must burn the excesses of our Youthly flames!" Lee finished for him.

Gai immediately shouted "YES!", and threw his arms into the air."I love your spirit, Lee! Now get to sparring- Neji and Lee in taijutsu, and Tenten can practice her accuracy by trying to hit me."

_Perfect, _thought Tenten sadistically; she yanked out a surprising array of pointy objects while Neji and Lee faced each other, Neji attacking when Lee moved to bow respectfully.

Lee could now do better than hold his own in taijutsu, and even avoid the jabs of the Gentle Fist style; but Neji's chakra was being saved for more practice with the Byakugan, and so he had to make due with only regular flying fists.

As Neji advanced with a useless vanguard of blows, Lee stepped backwards and blocked each one with ease.

"EEP, EEP!"

"Oh, sorry, Mudkip!" he called; he'd stepped on the poor creature's foot, so close was it standing to him. Neji took no heed of this exchange, and plunged ahead once more. A few more blows came before Lee could deliver a counter-attack, albeit one that caused him to backflip out of Neji's wrath. He spun gracefully in midair, landing in a crouch- with his left sandal on Mudkip's tail. It screamed as if it were being murdered, and Lee was forced to stop and comfort it.

"Mudkip, you need to stay back! I am okay!" he told it, and the being seemed to understand. It pitter-pattered over to a bed of dead leaves, and watched Lee from afar with pained eyes.

Okay, Lee thought, raising a hand in front of him in a 'Bring it' gesture. Standing authoratively, he let Neji batter against his guard until opportunity presented itself. Lee dove to deliver a low kick, but Neji, having also learned from fighting Lee, avoided and brought his heel down from a flying leap. Lee rolled to avoid the guillotine, and caught both flying punches as he came back up. Locked in standstill, the boys waged mental war as they struggled to be the first to escape and counter-attack.

But suddenly Neji was blown clear from Lee's grip; a massive torrent of water exploded from the side, sending Neji flying into the canopy of branches all around them. Tenten and Gai paused in their conflict to check on the situation; they found Neji hanging upside-down from a tree ten feet away, drip-drying and roiling with quiet anger; Lee was standing stiffly near his little buddy, who with small feet spread had sent a great, rushing cannon from it's garbage-can-like mouth. Mudkip was panting, glaring up at Neji like a dog fixed on a cat it was chasing.

"… Cool." Lee finally said, smiling.

----

Once Mudkip was preoccupied with chasing bugs, Team Gai actually got some stuff done. They were being primed all week for their big task, and were thus obligated to complete a few D-ranked missions each day. After spending most of their energies, Gai set them loose upon the menial tasks: picking weeds, delivering packages of food to shut-ins. All that fun stuff.

Mudkip would have no part in manual labor at first. Neji was getting away splendidly with putting the dead plants he ripped up into the thing's pried-open gab, until Lee yelled at him and proceeded to give Mudkip the Heimlich manuever.

As far as their delivery duties, Mudkip was a tad more helpful; Lee was able to strap a few bento boxes onto it's small back and convince it, albeit with much difficulty, to carry them as he walked. They were a regular cell now, all four of them walking one after the other, Lee at the rear with Mudkip following close behind. It was a hot day, and inciting of many complaints from Tenten- at least until she got an idea.

"C'mere, Muddy Thing," she called, opening her arms; Mudkip bounded into her embrace, and was turned to stare straight into her face. "I'm hot." she told it, closing her eyes and asking to be lightly misted by it's Bubbleshot technique. What she got was ten gallons of water straight in the kisser; Neji could hardly keep from laughing, in spite of his eternal stoicism, at the sight of Tenten's mascara running down her face and her wet, saturated buns dangling like an angry animal's ears. She stared at Lee for a very, very long time, mouth puckered and forehead creased in the center with rage.

"At least you're not hot anymore," Lee offered, lifting Mudkip in case they both needed to flee.

At the end of the day, they were all standing in the hot, cramped kitchen of a _dim sum_ restaurant. Neji was drying the dishes that Lee handed him after Mudkip gave them a good blasting (he would later realize that Lee thought water pressure excused them from using soap). Tenten, in a slunty little _chi-pao _that was the uniform of all the female waitresses, bustled in and out of the curtained area with cute little laquer bowls and entire plates of _wonton_ in her arms.

"Another hour," she reminded the boys, who nodded. They were all tired, except for Mudkip; after the Tenten-Soaking Incident, and after she had brained Lee and received another punishing blast of bubbles for it, Mudkip had fallen asleep in the middle of the street. Lee was forced to carry him for the rest of the stifling day, while also trying to shoulder a dozen boxes of food for delivery; Tenten and Neji had offered him no assistance, out of revenge. The creature had slept quietly in the dish strainer since they'd arrived at the restaurant, but was now awake and playful, and not above being worked.

When the last plate was being scraped, Tenten strolled into the backroom and fell, with a sigh, upon a stack of boxes. "Time to go," she called joyfully, before rising to change out of her uniform. Lee and Neji washed the specks of food from themselves and finished putting the kitchen back together, before walking towards the front of the place to accept their pay.

"Sorry," the manager said, pointing to Lee. "It's _you_ who'll be paying me."

"What?" the boy asked.

"Your little doggy has eaten up more than what you guys have earned. I'll be keeping your money, as well as about five ryou more."

"That is not possible- Mudkip!" Lee called, flinging off his grey apron.

And indeed, there was Mudkip, seated in a ramen bowl, the remains of _yakitori_ and green-bean _dango _scattered about him like masses of twigs. He was chewing on the head of a _taiyaki_ fish cake, the pastry tail emerging from the corner of his mouth like a tongue.

"Oh, no-" Lee began, clutching his cheek. Mudkip gave a small, adorable belch, as if to say '_Oh, yes-'_ Tenten had, by this time, walked around and seen the mess. The two normal members of Team Gai were kind enough not to abuse Lee until they were safely out of earshot of the restaurant.

"No more pets allowed!" Neji swore, barely able to keep his fists at his sides.

Tenten was a little more liberal; after smacking Lee on the back of the head, she informed him that Mudkip had been "nothing but trouble since he'd arrived!"

"It's your responsibility to keep that Thing out of our hair," Neji patronized, staring into Lee's eyes in an undeniably adversarial way. "You just made fools of us in front of a client, and now we have nothing to show for our work. You'd better get rid of that thing by Thursday, or so help me I will make myself a pair of Mudkip boots."

"I am sorry." Lee said regretfully, keeping his head down until the pair traipsed off into the moonlight for home. Mudkip, who had been sitting at his heels with quiet, animal knowledge that he had 'been bad', lifted his big, blue head and glanced crookedly up at Lee when he finally spoke.

"Looks like we're going to have to get you a babysitter." he said, smiling haggardly.

* * *

**AN: Button, see? Yes. For to click. For to type in additionally. Thenk yew.**


	3. Bringing Down Konoha

**AN: Chapter 3 is here, haha... Thanks to my new Watchers. This story is going to be cliche at times and rather cute, but how else can it be with Pokemon? They infect everything they touch...**

**The grocery store idea is old, but still: Mudkip-induced chaos. Enjoy. **

* * *

"NO! NONONO NO NOOO!" Naruto screamed, flying down the pink-carpeted hall and slamming his front door behind him. As he scrambled to turn the lock, however, Lee's shoulder bore the opening a crack.

"Please, Naruto!" he called mournfully, Mudkip chewing what seemed to be cud in his arms. "I have to train today, and I cannot bring him with me! Neji will skin him alive!"

"Sorry, Geji Mayu- it goes strictly against my personal rules about responsibility." the blonde replied, pushing back against the door. " - and that's never to take one on." The door clicked, and Naruto sighed with relief. He was gone.

"Just for this week, my friend!"

"Get the hell out of my room!" Naruto shrieked, running over to shut the window; both of their sets of fingers, however, were bruised by the jamb flying down. Sucking on their knuckles and whining, the boys collapsed onto the bamboo floor.

"Huff, huff…fine." he said, his sapphire eyes alive with rebellion. "But don't expect much."

"Oh, excellent!" Lee exclaimed, letting Mudkip down to snuffle around the towering heaps of laundry and empty food containers which filled Naruto's room. It was like leaving your child in a toxic waste dump, but hey- beggars can't be choosers.

"I am glad you offered before I had to suggest paying you."

"Hey, wait a second- Geji Mayu!" Naruto snapped, grabbing for Lee's elbow; with a cheerful goodbye, Lee swept out the window from which he had entered and took off down the alleyway, Naruto yelling all the while: "GEJI MAYU, GET YOUR HAPPY GREEN ASS BACK HERE!!"

----

And so an hour passed of silent standoff. To say that Mudkip was distressed would be an understatement. Two days ago it hadn't know Lee, and two days later it couldn't live without him. The thing appeared to be edging into a suicidal-unto-homicidal depression as it lay, spread on it's stomach, in the middle of Naruto's floor.

"Heyyy- you're not slipping into a homicidal depression, are ya?" Naruto asked it laughingly.

Mudkip just let his humorless eyes slide up to meet Naruto's, who promptly went to hide his razor and all the kitchen knives.

Naruto had the day off, recovering from some accidental wounds- accidental in that he hadn't meant to piss Tsunade and Sakura off at the same time, but had anyway. So a day that would have been spent sleeping late and indulging his laziness was now thwarted by the presence of a water-type Pokemon with whom Lee had left no instructions. He decided that introductions were the best place to start.

"Um, hi." he said, extending his hand.

Mudkip merely hissed at him, and rolled over to lie and stare at the door; but as he did, the creature let out a massive sneeze followed by a hollow, hacking cough. Mucus began to pump from the poor thing's gills, and Mudkip was beginning to look kind of pathetic. It turned to Naruto with new sympathy, it's shiny eyes glazed over with fever. So that's why he was in such a bad mood…

What do you do with a mudkip who has the flu? It was like some sort of bizarre children's book. Sweatdropping, Naruto wondered what exactly he'd gotten himself into.

----

"Okay, okay." Naruto chanted hyperactively to himself, trying to calm down as they strolled into the grocery store. What?- even he ran out of ramen at times, and it was becoming clearer that sickly Mudkip was in need of some expectorant. Plus there was NO way he was leaving Lee's pet by itself, sick and not apparently housetrained. He might have been Naruto, but he wasn't that dumb. (This theory would have worked for anyone else, but for the sake of the fan fiction- it's not going to.)

Plunking the sneezy and snotty mudkip into the child-seat of the cart, he began buckling the creature in but decided against it; the fish-creature wasn't going anywhere. The mudkip cemented this sentiment by resting his head onto the handle and sighing mournfully.

"Hey, little buddy- you really are sick," Naruto cooed, beginning his sojourn. "Don't worry. We'll be out of here in a few minutes. Just lemmee get some food…"

Nothing could go wrong in this situation, could it?

----

"Oh, turn it up, I like this song!"

Lee responded to Tenten's command without glancing up from his task, scooping compost. It was only after he realized that both Neji and Tenten had paused that the radio was broadcasting some interesting local news.

"Local Genin and amphibious creature flee disaster zone in grocery cart, after allegedly bringing the store down around their ears… Details are sketchy at this point, but we'll continue to bring you more information..."

----

Okay, so here's what happened:

As they rounded the snack cake aisle, a little old woman came strolling by with her claw-hands locked around a basket of cat food and milk; "Oh, what an adorable doggy you have!!"

"Uhh, thanks, baa-chan…"

"I would just looove to pet him-" she cooed, reaching out to do so before Naruto could stop her. Mudkip, agitated and not feeling well, responded by yipping angrily- and bringing his mouth down upon her fingers.

Despite Mudkip's lack of teeth, the woman began screaming so furiously that the lower half of her dentures became dislodged. Her shout so startled a young, pimply clerk who was stacking soda bottles that he wavered on top of his ladder; he fell backwards, the ladder shooting out from underneath him and dispersing the neat pyramid with a great rushing of sugar and caffeinated water. Shoppers in nearby aisles came tearing over to rubberneck, instantly slipping in the sticky puddle slowly overcoming the floor.

"Uhh, sorry…" Naruto mouthed, scooching along to grab a few packs of ramen. They'd better cut this trip short… Mudkip was beginning to snarl, as he curled into a ball and began having a harder time breathing than before. The walls were closing in, they needed to get out of the store-

Trying to stand, a man managed to bring down the entire deli counter; mystery meat and days-old curry flew as the glass front shattered, upsetting a nearby family with three children in the cart basket. The screams of toddlers only enraged the now fearsome and avenging Mudkip, who rose up in all of his god-given evil aura and growled in their general direction; shojou flames shot up around him, occluding the store to darkness. The children only screeched louder and lost control of their bladders, and went flying off in sobbing tangents. One of them ran head-first into the abandoned cart, and sent it flying towards an unstocked (I.e flimsy) shelf. Naruto nearly bit his lip in half gasping in horror, but ended sighing with relief when the cart only bumped the thing. Thank god; things could have been worse.

…And it was. That shelf teetered, snickered indiscriminately, and then came down on the first aisle. Containers of spices and instant-soup blew into the air as the second shelf absorbed the impact, and collapsed directly into the canned meats and sauce aisle. With a succession of thundering blows, the rows began tipping over domino-style, causing shocked patrons to run, screaming for their lives. Glass littered the floors; a fat woman was standing in the yogurt section with her mouth wide open, and was struck by six-pack from a nearby ledge. The door of the refrigerated section gave way with an explosion of electricity and coolant fluid, as the entire alcoholic beverage section came down upon them in a wheat-scented wave of death. Cat food cans rolled en masse like an army of aluminum death; children's rubber balls were roiling around, and those hazardous little things you stick in corncobs had escaped their packaging and dispersed like crow's feet; people were crawling up from the wreckage everywhere, splattered with food and vaguely wounded, staring in disbelief.

And at the locus of the mess, Naruto and Mudkip stood at the check-out line, mouths on the floor.

Naruto used the chaos to go bustling, unseen, out of the store- and he didn't stop the double-time pace until they were home. Mudkip, it turns out, had stolen a bag of cookies on their way out. While being scolded, the blue sweetie sniffled and finished chewing the last crumbs.

----

"Never. Again." was all he said, before slamming the door in Lee's face.

The pair walked home in silent regard of the trouble they were in; Mudkip hung his head, sniffing only occasionally at fireflies and gnats. Lee glanced at him dourly, wondering what on earth he was going to do.

"I cannot leave you home," he began, thinking to the night sky. "There is no telling what you would do. You bit an old woman, and you can turn the tap water on but not off… Naruto will not watch you, and Hana-san is busy all week…"

It had been a long day, and his temples were pounding. Lee dropped to the street curb, clutching his sleek head in a defeated gesture.

"Oh, that I had not found this animal!" he lamented to the apathetic world. He was thinking only of how he had inconvenienced others and left his sick pet in the hands of a self-proclaimed psychopath, ashamed that he couldn't take better care of Mudkip.

"I love you very much, my pet- but you are not making it easy for me to care for you!"

But that's not what Mudkip heard. Mudkip understood the tone, the way Naruto had snapped at him that afternoon; backing up slowly, Mudkip lowered his flat head, seeming to nod in disbelief. And then he ran, pattering into the maze-like tangle of the dark village without any idea of where he was going.

Lee looked up a few seconds later, and found the ground bare, only moonlight where his small friend had once been.

"Mudkip!" he cried, jumping to his feet. "MUDKIP! Where are you!?" But the alleys gave no answer.

* * *

**AN: O: Oh no, Mudkip! Review, or he'll never come back!**


	4. Mahdkeep To Ze Reskyuu!

Neji poked the pseudoplasmic blob helpfully; it's response was shift slightly, like the unfeeling goop that makes up a Ditto, and flow into a new blob-shape. "Time to go," the Hyuuga finally said, to which the liquefied Lee only murmured in response, pulling the straps of his backpack closer as he turned away from Konoha.

Mudkip had been missing for two days; Lee had spent them canvassing neighborhoods, wading in streams and traipsing through tick-infested woods calling the creature's name. But hide nor scale of the little guy had turned up, and Lee was overwrought with grief. And possibly Lyme Disease.

"I am overwrought!" he had cried, sobbing into Gai's chest the next day.

"And overdramatic," Tenten added, looking battered by all of the insanity.

Thursday had rolled around, revealing no Mudkip in spite Lee's hopes; and Team Gai was commissioned to leave for Numakuni, brokenhearted Green Beast in tow.

"It was a wild animal, Lee." Neji tempered with the fatalistic apathy (coughcoughassholery) so akin to his character. "It's gone back to it's little happy world, so please get with the mission and stop angsting. You're almost as annoying when it's not around, to be honest-"

"Neji…" Tenten began fruitlessly, watching Lee's slumped form traipse down the long road without response. Losing a friend was hard enough, without bad terms existing when you separated.

"Neji." Lee repeated, suddenly stopping dead in his tracks. Eyebrows all around went up.

"Stop it, or I'm going to spit in your canteen." he growled, setting off again. There was silence for a long, long while in Team Gai…until Tenten asked if Neji would like some ice for that BU-URN, and he started walking to avoid being pwned.

Once drunk on the smell of the forest, Lee's mood improved slightly; he and Gai raced along, discussing all manner of Youthful and Glorious things and Tenten and Neji hung back, as usual, pretending not to know either of them. The sun was past the halfway mark of it's daily journey by the time the desolate, rotten landscape of the Swamp Country became discernable. Their mission would be simple, over in a few hours, they hoped.

* * *

Blood pouring from the scrapes in his jumpsuit, Lee tore through the foliage as though he were being chased by an army of fan girls. The pulsing of his pale face in the dusk, however, revealed that his pursuer was not to be taken so lightly.

With the giving-way of a root on the path, the boy heaved in a heartbreaking free-fall to the ground; instantly he was scrambling up into the half-dark, scooting on his read end with the lame despair of a wounded prey animal. When the final blow came, it was all he could do to throw up his arms in front of his dirty, scratched face and shoot a prayer out to the universe.

* * *

Visitors in the night were not usually a good sign; that's why Naruto had his handy dandy baseball bat in one hand, as he snuck closer to the dark form in his window. For one tense moment he paused, and then flung open the sash with all of his might.

Naruto screamed; Mudkip screamed. Naruto yelped. Mudkip yelped. Naruto made a small, spitting sound of disbelief, and Mudkip stared him down from his precarious perch.

"M-Mudkip! What the hell! I thought you went back to PokeLand!" the boy spat, dropping the bat; it hit him on the foot, and as he leapt about saying things you don't want your Mudkip hearing, the creature simply welcomed himself into the room and padded over to Naruto's nightstand.

"Geji Mayu was tearing up the whole damn village!" he began anew, spittle flying. "He set little rope snare traps all around town, with cake in it- do you know how many times I got my leg dislocated from getting hauled into the air? It was worse than that day with Kakashi-sensei- and it's your fault!"

Mudkip just blinked, his fishy little expression set until Naruto finally stopped babbling. And then Mudkip crouched on his haunches and began to bark, gesticulating to the bedside table where Naruto's ninja things lay in a small heap and then to the window.

"What- is something wrong?" Naruto finally asked. He crawled over to the creature, who pounded the ground with it's front feet and whipped it's head towards the conveniently-placed Polaroid of Lee on his last birthday, which was taped to the dresser.

"Whaaaaatt! I'm tired!" he shouted, annoyed; finally, with a sigh, Naruto waltzed over to observe the photograph. "Yeah, that's Lee."

Mudkip froze, shaking it's little head so hard as to barely avoid brain damage at the word 'Lee'.

"… He was looking for you, I told you. Do you know how much I'm hurting right now, and I never even got the cake-"

To this Mudkip yelped, and paced a circle around the bedside table, before bounding over to the windowsill and lifting his head in a 'let's go' gesture.

Naruto looked at him from across the room, already half asleep where he stood.

"Yeah, you missed out. It looked pretty delicious."

The small sigh which lifted from the animal was irrevocably human. Narrowing it's coal-colored eyes, Mudkip walked over to the hat-wearing kitsune and clamped it's mouth tightly down on his pajama sleeve. With the strength of a friend, he began dragging Naruto towards the window, muffled whimpers escaping it's grip.

"… Oh. Wait. You want to go find Lee."

Mudkip nodded furiously, never letting go of Naruto.

"But he's on a mission right now."

Mudkip's eyes widened, and he began to pull tighter; Naruto simply stood, grounded and staring into space.

"… I hope he's okay."

Mudkip whimpered at this, and began to leap up and down, taking the boy's arm with him.

"Yeah." he said after a few seconds, apparently blind to Mudkip's reactions. "It'd be weird if this were one of those Lassie moments…It isn't, right?"

At the end of his rope, Mudkip rolled his eyes and sighed heavily around Naruto's now-damp arm. Throwing all of his weight backwards, the Pokemon swore in his head that if he could speak the tongue of these two-legged dimwits, he would give Naruto the what-for. And possibly suggest Special Ed classes.

* * *

Imagine, if you will, a Mudkip on a mission: his little blue body bent in pursuit, shining eyes narrowed and cheek-stars flying as he bounds heroically over hill and dale and post and rail. See the power in his small limbs, the great fire of devotion burning in it's sparrow chest as he sniffs at a million miles per hour, tracking ceaselessly.

-And then imagine a half-awake Naruto roughly a mile back, yelling because he got caught in some thorn bushes. This was the great parade that set forth to rescue Team Gai from their deathly misfortunes, as bravely as a boy and a foot-tall mudfish can.

The point of the spectacle was that Mudkip would reach the Swamp Country; Lee might not have wanted him around, but the truth was that friends never let friends down. Even a slimy, sickly Pokemon knew this, and doubled his pace in response.

* * *

Gai scrambled on empty air for a second, before heaving to the ground with limbs skittering; he soundlessly whipped around on all fours to huddle beside his weak and bleeding student, and immediately threw his arm over Lee, pulling the boy against his chest and covering his body with his own.

"This is insane," Gai huffed, breath harsh in his raw throat. Lee made no response, only to note the thundering of his Sensei's heart as they waited, death filling the smoggy air and reeking up from the ground.

Curling his arms against his chest, there was nothing to do but devise a plan; they had to get out of here- and that meant with or without Neji and Tenten, who they could no longer see in the dark of the foreboding forest.

And the things unseen were the most lethal, you know.

Straightening his flying form, Mudkip burst streamlined through a ring of foliage and landed at a skid. He paused for a moment, to listen to the vibrations in the atmosphere, and then set off again.

Lee was close, he could feel it.

Naruto was finally close to catching up; he crested the small hill and broke through the bushes just in time to see Mudkip dive head-first into the air, cresting majestically in front of Lee and Gai's crouched green bodies, and take the blow of the weapon that had been homing in on them.

Not believing his eyes, Lee sprang up and crawled stealthily after the rolling, pudgy of body of the struck Mudkip. He called it's name, tenderly inspecting it and leaning close in the dark to examine the harm done to him. Mudkip had taken a bullet for him; he had come all this way, despite their misunderstanding, and saved both teacher and student.

"Oh, Mudkip…" Lee whispered, eyes flooding with tears. Beneath him the creature strained for breath, sides heaving and mouth wide. "You…you are truly my dearest heart! I'm so sorry!"

When Lee scooped up and embraced him, slime and all, it seemed to finally calm from the pain shooting through it's small body, sighing with relief; everyone was alright. Now all they had to do was defeat their invisible enemies in the murky fog, and get out of this place. Friends helping friends.

Luckily, Lee had a plan.

The ominous pair crouched together on the red-peat ground, knees wet and evilly-contorted faces streaked with mud. Their grins were however undeniable, as from the ground they extracted the very shrapnel of their unstopping barrage. They stood unopposed, having cornered the innocent teacher-student pair within a cluster of bushes that would surely become their executionary ground. The end was very near, they knew; and together they surged upwards, ready to deliver the final attack.

And that's when Naruto came stumbling through the bushes, whining about his various pains. He walked right into Neji, who lost his balance and fell down on top of Tenten. All three of them crashed into a heap, stunned for a moment before the complaints and insults began.

"Naruto? What the hell!"

"Neji, Tenten- you're okay! So where's the fire?"

"Thank you, Naruto" the lavender-eyed Hyuuga growled through his mouthful of Tenten's shoulder. "I can almost forgive you, considering how Tenten's breasts are about four times softer than I thought they'd be…"

"Oh, you are too vile for words!" the violated kunoichi shouted, shoving both boys into oblivion with one hand. Naruto shook the innate wrongness of the exchange from his mind, and began to inquire of Gai and Lee's location, let alone what the heck was going on here.

But he never got to finish the sentence. Because Rock Lee suddenly burst up from the shrubbery, like Neo from the Matrix, spandex rippling and eyes full of vengeance. Clutched to his chest like a sub-automatic machine gun was Mudkip, mouth slowly opening to reveal Pandora inside.

"_NOW!" _Lee cried, securing his armament by grasping the fin on it's head; Mudkip's mouth blew open, expelling a massive surge of water upon Neji, Tenten, and Naruto. Swinging the Pokemon in an arc, Lee was able to hit all three of them before even touching the ground. Bounding up with Shinobi grace, he bore the squirting Mudkip straight ahead, blowing all of them back from the fire-hose pressure; Naruto and Tenten were shouting, and Neji fruitlessly attempting to deflect the powerful spray with Juuken chakra. It's also pertinent to note that Lee was shouting like something from The Godfather the entire time, inviting them all to say hello to his 'little friend'.

"**_BWAAAAAAA_**!" Lee continued, even as Mudkip pumped to a stop. Up to his ankles in the miniature cove they had just created, the Green Beast paused dramatically to survey the mastery of the Pokemon-Shinobi alliance; searching the dark, he flipped Mudkip over and massaged it's shiny belly as if to reload.

"**_SURRENDER OR BE WATER GUNNED_**!"

After a few seconds, the soaking forms of Tenten and Neji emerged from the foliage, palms upheld.

"Kami, fine…" the girl sighed, shivering from head to toe as she squished along in wet sandals.

"You win." Neji acknowledged, glaring over the e-collar of his shirt; Lee whooped with manly passion, flinging his friend into the air and managing to spin before catching him. "We did it, Mudkip! We did it!"

Gai and Naruto emerged from opposite ends of the forest, sparkling respectively from Youthful sweat and Mudkip spit. "Excellent teamwork, my precious pupil!"

"Wait- what the eff is going on here? Who's in danger!"

"No one." Gai answered succinctly. "This was a training exercise using natural resources, for we managed to complete our mission early. There's always an opportunity for extra combat preparation!"

Naruto glanced down at the half-formed balls of peat on the ground; how stupid. It had been like a snowball fight, only with swamp goop instead of finely-crafted ice projectiles. That's what had knocked Mudkip out of the air, what he was up at this ungodly hour trying to save Gai and Lee from.

"JESUS CHRIST," the blonde began, before throwing up his arms in disgust. "You- you freaks of nature! I'm going home!"

"There's only two freaks of nature here, and they're both in green," Neji reminded his retreating back gently; Tenten sneezed miserably, her whole body wobbling. Fabulous; the beginnings of a cold.

Lee was still spinning around with glee, clutching the cheerful Mudkip to his chest. They'd made up now, and life would be ever peachy and youthful from now on; just Lee and Mudkip, Mudkip and Lee, solid partners from this day forward, never leaving each other's side! Gai was laughing at the speech falling from Lee's mouth, at how Mudkip gazed up into his tanned face and genuinely smiled with happiness. He kissed Lee on the cheek with his soft, pink tongue, and the boy flopped onto the ground laughing. Hell, they all started to laugh; even Neji, now humbled by the might of the this ridiculously-cute apparition.

"I am heartily proud, my pseudo son-" Gai declared. "And I officially proclaim Mudkip to be the fourth member of my cell, now and forever more!"

And so, rejoicing, the happy parade began it's march towards home. But in the next clearing, they came upon a sight that stopped them all dead in their tracks.

The field was full of caged and shivering Mudkips, stacked on top of one another and staring speechlessly, fearfully at the humans whom they would surely never trust again.

* * *

Lee immediately began popping locks, which allowed Mudkip to pace over and sniff his newly-freed brethren with disbelief. The rest of the Gai cell began inspections, tiptoeing between the rows of metal boxes which held Mudkips old and young, shivering and crouching against the corners with terror.

"It's a poaching operation." Gai said slowly, rubbing his manly, rock-cleft of a chin with wonder.

"They've dismantled the entire population, and are keeping them here for shipping." Neji continued, lifting the fronds of a nearby fern. "Look at these nests down here. They just scooped them up where they lay. It looks like they didn't care about the unhatched eggs, either…"

"You mean those were baby Mudkips?" Tenten cried, to which her teammate nodded morosely.

"Pokemon have long been extinct in these regions, because trappers take them to the Johto and Hoenn regions to sell. You can make a fair bit of money off of them, I'll bet…"

Lee slammed at the front of a cage, putting his fist straight through the bars and warping a path for the Mudkips inside to escape.

"This is unbelievable!" he cried, eyes in flames. "Who could do such a thing-"

But Lee was cut off by the renewed squeaks of his own Mudkip; he was pawing at a particular cage door, finally managing to unlatch the lock. A fair stream of undersized Mudkips came pouring out, yelping, followed by several adult specimens, some of them clearly female. Lee's Mudkip strolled directly up to one of them, and placed his forehead lovingly against hers; murmurs of love were passed between them, as they stroked each other's faces and smelled one another longingly. It was plain to see from their consolations: this female was Mudkip's mate. From her Mudkip bent his head down to each of the undersized, juvenile mud kips, snuffling them all and exchanging happy sounds as they streamed around his body.

This was where Mudkip had come from; this is where he had escaped from, desperately searching for the family he had left behind. Lee sat on his knees, rubbing Mudkip's long back and staring down at the cavorting rest as they searched for family members and wandered about stretching their limbs. There was no telling how long they had been trapped, or how long it would be until their captors came back. The decision was made in a silent exchange of glances, between the ebony-haired Genin who could and the blue Pokemon who now stood in the midst of his clan, stronger than ever, with no one else's consent. It was a promise, now.

"We're taking them to Konoha- where nobody will ever hurt them again!" Lee whispered sharply, already forming the bones of the rescue in his tactically-trained mind.

* * *

_**A/N: And just wait to see how they pull it off... More soon!**_


	5. Mudkip Fields Forever

_**A/N: And now, the FINAL Mudkip story installment... I'm actually quite proud of how this all ends, especially the bit with Neji. Loyal lovers of Lee and Kips of Mud, enjoy the chapter- it's been a blast.**_

* * *

The dust roiled over the top of the hill, even before the first column of Mudkips stormed over it's crest; soon the road was alive with little scrambling blue things, a veritable river of freed Pokemon kicking up clumps of dirt and grass. They were being herded en masse, like cattle through the old West; you could practically hear the Bonanza theme.

"HEE-YAH!" Tenten shouted, clutching the reins of an imaginary, rearing stallion. Adjusting a fake cowboy hat, she galloped along; roundup at the Mudkip corall.

"Head 'em up, move 'em out- keep them doggies rollin', RAWHI-" Gai sang.

"Please, Hoss." Neji pleaded exhaustedly, keeping his post at the rear. A sleepless night could only push him closer to seppuku if everyone kept singing. Luckily, they obliged him and moved on in silence.

Through rain and wind and weather, puddles and rivers and sandbars, the mudkip army advanced; the only sound to color their banner was that of a four hundred marching feet, and the sighs of the stoic Hyuuga when the young mudkiplings began to fall behind and had to be carried. By the time they reached the checkpoint for Konohagakure, Neji had tucked in his shirt in order to haul the multitudes, who peeked out of his sleeves and collar or napped, completely enjoying the ride.

Illegal at best outside of the Fire County's jurisdiction, the mass smuggling of Mudkips would be akin to sneaking emus over the border. They had to get these Kips of Mud to safety, just beyond the towering _rashomon_gate who's carved faces leered down, their final challenge.

It's Team Gai, so you know they're gonna do it big. And oddly.

The high screams of a woman in pain shook the set of young guards at the passage-point; by the time the tall figure of a man had raced up, a burgeoning figure folded in his arms bride-style, they had managed to regain composture.

"You must help us!" Gai cried in a peasant's rough accent, over Neji's wild shouts. It was now clear, even in the dim light of the cresting dawn, that the long-haired form in Gai's arms bore a stomach swollen to the size that it seemed a nine year-old could have been doubled up inside her abdomen.

"My daughter is giving birth to-"

"Septuplets." Tenten whispered.

"SEPTUPLETS!" Gai finished, shaking Neji for emphasis. "We have to get to Konoha Hospital, so the legendary Tsunade-sama can deliver all six of them!"

"Seven." Tenten whispered again.

"All seven of them!" Gai corrected, looking desperate. Latin be damned, if he could read 5,000 kanji.

The guards cast a worried look over the disheveled party following the panicked man, dressed in a most unusual suit of skin-tight, verdant fabric. If he didn't look so suspicious, they would have simply let him wander through, a helpless madman.

"Where are you from? Where are your papers?" the young man asked.

"From Numagakure, please, we're just poor civil servants and we can't have these babies born in our village. The scandal would destroy our whole clan. My daughter Neji-ko here isn't married yet, and you can see-"

"What's in the bags?"

"Oh, birthing things," Tenten answered lightly, smiling. With a hidden hand she pinched sharply on the side of the bag closest to her front, reminding the mud kips to hold still. "You know- forceps, the CD of whale sounds…"

"… Maam, your bags are moving." the uniformed man noted, pointing to the protruding bulge of a kicking Mudkip foot.

"No, they're not." Gai responded immediately.

"…Yes, they are."

"No, I'm sure you are mistaken..."

Rolling his eyes, Neji began a new fit of wailing, clutching his squirmy, pregnant belly and cursing God.

"Please, sir!" Lee stepped in, two more bags heaved upon his shoulders as though he were some sort of mountain pack mule. He was wearing a fisherman's head twist, the disguise clashing with his borderline-tacky Gai imitation. "Let us through, and we will leave some collateral behind to ensure our return! We must get my sister to proper care!"

"What kind of collateral?"

"That was beyond wrong!" Tenten accused of them once the team had discarded their guises and were safely out of earshot.

"You're telling me," 'Neji-ko' murmured, twisting his girlish hair back into a manly-man style. His stomach was still full, however, as most of the little Mudkips had fallen asleep from the sway of his gait.

"I'm an unwed mother of septuplets and about twenty little Mudkips…"

"Now, now- let's buck up." Gai commented, striding at the head of the herd. "We'll buy Tenten a new pack of underthings when we get back to the village, and Neji- you'd better tell me who the father is before we get to the gates!"

The original Mudkip tucked safely under his arm, Lee glanced down and exchanged a smile with his little companion; they were home free, now.

"Let 'er rip, Tenzou…"

"Kakashi-senpai…" Yamato wept, massaging his forehead. "You're not supposed to call me by my real name…"

"Whatever. Just do it." the grey-haired Jonin spat back, never looking up from his book.

With a zen sigh, the poor abused Yamato raised both hands skyward and collected the powers of the earth therein; when he slammed the left fist against the ground, the earth sunk into pools and shot up at once, for a distance that made even Tsunade whistle under her breath.

Eyes closed, Yamato then brought the right fist downwards, slamming the ground and then lifting clenched fingers back behind his head. Great spurts of groundwater exploded from the earth, jetting fountains high into the air to rain back down in spectrum-colored sheets; the depths began to fill with this, and after some time Yamato let the hand that wielded earth close slowly, cutting off the flow from the inside of the ground. With a great exhalation, the ANBU general slapped his hands together; green chakra buzzed to life between those palms, and with the slightest touch up roared protective trees and shelters; the seedlings of underground plants, soon to sprout into a jungle of bliss for knee-high creatures. Climbing areas, small bridges were carefully placed, overhangs and warm winter dens, all at Yamato's perfectionist whims. The final touch demanded that he stomp the ground with one foot, sending the huge pylons of an impenetrable wall all around this new natural development. When the earth finally stopped rumbling from the massive changes wrought, Yamato fell squarely on his butt to the ground, sighing with exhaustion.

"They better be some special bastards…" he rumbled. "That was a lot of chakra."

"They are, I promise." Tsunade said smilingly, dropping a hand on his broad shoulder. "And don't worry, you'll be amply rewarded for this."

"Does that mean a date with Shizune?" he inquired.

"Don't push your luck. Now open a gate for them."

Turning around, the Godaime swept her arms in a come-forth gesture; instantly poured forth the jovial group of mudkip refugees, who roared into their new, safe home with animal shrieks of joy.

"I hereby declare the Konohagakure Mudkip Sanctuary open and functional!" she cried, to which generalized delight was expressed by the picnicking crowd who had turned out to see the beginnings of a new zoo enclosure. At the front of the crowd, however, stood one boy smiling so brightly that it seemed almost impossible to make a sound.

Mudkip and his family were some of the last to pass through the doorway; Mudkip's mate and the little kiplings cavorted happily inside with hardly a glance behind. But just short of strolling in, the Mudkip who'd started it all rotated slowly, scanning the high array of faces for one in particular.

When they met eyes, Lee dipped his head in a light bow, thanking Mudkip for the adventure and his companionship. And Mudkip imitated him, lowering his bucket head in recognition of all Lee had done for him and his relatives.

And so went the story of Mudkip and Team Gai, who were given free passes to the Mudkip Zoo for the rest of their lives; the place became a real draw for the Land of Fire, and Naruto would spend nearly every summer confined there, grumbling and watching over the motley little gift-shop. Just so that no one would forget the heroic story, the village elders paid for a small concrete statue to be cast, with a respectful plaque at it's feet. It began as a likeness of Lee beside one of the Pokemon, but Gai talked them into making a gravid replica of Hyuuga Neji instead, looking heavily prenatal as he timelessly bore the burden of a shirt full of little mud kips. The statue was vandalized four times by the Hyuuga in question, who had his pass revoked.

And Lee and Mudkip remained the best of friends, visiting over the years as they aged and expanded their families.

_THE __END_

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**A/N: Don't forget to review!**


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